Estimate for Cement, Sand, Ballast in concrete slab:How to Calculate Amount of Aggregates in Concrete

Aggregates in concrete are the different materials mixed with cement and then water is added to make consistent paste.This paste is what is called concrete excluding reinforcement steel. Concrete is what is used to cast suspended floors, bases of foundations, ground floors, lintels, beams, columns and many structural elements. The materials used to cast concrete include cement, sand as the fine and ballast as the coarse aggregate respectively.

When a developer is casting any concrete works, aggregates must be calculated by the following processes. A fifty kilograms bag of cement on average can concrete about ten feet length at a depth of six inches thickness and eighteen inches width. A richer mix of one is to two is to four requires more cement than a mix of one is to three is to six. Therefore a foundation of three hundred feet with width and thickness as above would need about thirty bags.

Amount of coarse aggregate required equals volume to be concreted, thus to calculate amount of ballast know the volume to be concreted and this is equivalent to amount coarse aggregates. For the weight to be known multiply volume of concrete by one fifth to get tonnage required. Calculate the volume in cubic meters. Concrete of five cubic needs seven and a half cubic meters. This also depends on the size of ballast to be used and the use of the concrete.

To calculate the amount of fine aggregate which is sand its important to know its properties. Sand bulks when wet and shrinks when dry. Since the volume to concrete is equal to eighty percent of sand volume required on average then it means that due to bulking or shrinkage add about twenty percent to make equal to concrete volume. As a builder use proper batching boxes to measure aggregates and follow mixes stipulated to get the right concrete mix.

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